Category Archives: France

The Association of British Muslims strongly condemn and express our revulsion at the brutal and insane act of violence and murder of twelve people and injuring eleven others in Paris at the offices of the satirical Magazine Charlie Hebdo.

On behalf of the Muslims residing in Great Britain we express our sorrow and sympathy and convey our condolences to the grieving relatives, friends and associates of those who lost their lives in such tragic circumstance.

The slogan of the perpetrators of this crime “we have avenged Prophet Mohammed, God (Allah) is great” was deliberately made to malign all people of the Muslim faith in the eyes of the world. Islam practiced by all Muslims, except a very small minority, believe that human rights, rights and equality of all religion, race and cultural, plus social justice and freedom are the pillars of our faith. These terrorists are extremely wicked, dangerous, brutal, fanatical part of a particular sect or cult who have disguised themselves wearing the cloak of Islam. They have absolutely and I repeat absolutely nothing what so ever to do with Islam, just like Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland had nothing do anything with Christ or Christianity in their recent feuds. If they claim that they are “the pure and true believers and protectors of Islam and Muslims then why have they been killing thousands upon thousands of their own Muslim brothers and sisters within the bounds of the Muslim world. They have slaughtered men, women and children who say God (“Allah”) is great five times a day in their prayers, prayers that are all about peace, love and charity. These, unscrupulous, hideous and barbaric criminals did not hesitate in beheading Peter Edward Kassing, an American who had converted to Islam and adopted a Muslim name “Abdul Rahman Kassing. ,

Time has come to tackle this “cult” who are in a comparative way the Ku Klux Klan of the Muslim world. They are by now a global problem, a global menace. These scourge, the very scum of the modern world are branded as Islamists, whilst I keep repeating that they have absolutely nothing to do with Islam or its ideology. We have to acknowledge the fact that they are not only very well financed, armed and trained but also well versed with the art of using the media, especially the social media and the internet for their ill begotten aims. Their main objective is to subjugate other religions, cultures and societies. All efforts must be made and with great haste and urgency to cut off their sources of funding even if they are coming from some of “our best trading partners”. Never in the history of the modern world have terrorists and warlords received so much from so many, so freely, like ISIS, which many nations of the world must envy. Fellows like Abubaker Baghdadi must be saying to each other, “guys we have never had it so good”.

For the sake of regime, too many times we have encouraged, formed, financed, armed and trained rebel armies whose behaviour are no different to any other terrorist organisation. Often they have had boomerang effects. It is now appearing in the media that two of the terrorists named in the Charlie Hebdo massacre are ‘Syria returned’ i.e. ‘terrorists made in Syria’ perhaps at one of our friendly training camps. After gaining field experience, they have been returned to France with compliments. How sad, what a tragedy.

We beseech our Muslim brothers and sister in this country, France and rest of Europe to work hard within the community, with the government, the police, local authorities and the media in exposing and bringing justice to people with such twisted minds. In the safety of our nations and all its citizens lie the safety of all of us, Muslims or non-Muslims.

The Association of British Muslims (AoBM) strongly condemns the horrific shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris that has killed at least 13 people according to the news reports. Our thoughts are with the victims of this terror attack and the families affected at this difficult time.

At AoBM, we have maintained our differences with the editorial policies of Charlie Hebdo. We always have had questions about the judgement (but not the right) of publishing images which are predictably deeply offensive to many and have the potential to be inflammatory. However, at the same time we stand in support of freedom of expression and believe that there is no justification whatsoever, to take lives of people who we disagree with while exercising this right.

We note that the Quran instructs its believers to argue with the challengers in ways that are best and most gracious. The attacks in Paris symbolise nothing close to these Koranic instructions but instead represent a distortion of faith which is forgiving and open to debate.

AoBM also takes this opportunity to condemn the bomb attack in Yemen which killed at least 40 people.

AoBM stands in solidarity with the people of France and Yemen and seek justice for the victims as well as the perpetrators of the attacks.

Zahid Ali Akbar, Human Rights Director, The Association of British MuslimsPaul Salahuddin Armstrong, Co-Director, The Association of British MuslimsMohammed Abbasi, Co-Director, The Association of British Muslims

The Association of British Muslims regards a ban on any form of clothing as a somewhat extreme and rather undesirable course of action to take. We recognise and respect the human right of people to wear whatever they want. However, this goes both ways, and applies to someone who wants to wear a miniskirt as much as someone who wants to wear a burqa.

The vast majority of Muslim scholars do not regard the burqa as being sanctioned by Islam. Only a few small groups of muslims, who adhere to certain specific sectarian or ideological beliefs, consider the burqa to be part of Islam. While the Holy Qur’an calls for men and women to dress modestly, it doesn’t mention the need for women to wear a burqa or niqab. The Holy Qur’an needs to be interpreted in a particular non-mainstream manner, for anyone to find anything that could be seen as supporting the burqa. One in every four people on this planet are muslims, around half of whom are women. The vast majority of these muslim women, whether living in majority muslim countries or elsewhere, do not wear the burqa. While hijabs/headscarves are popular, even the vast majority of very religious muslim women do not wear the burqa, niqab or any other form of face veil. Thus, the belief that veiling the face is a part of Islam, cannot be substantiated.

Of concern, is the fact that while people should be free to wear whatever they want, many of the groups who sanction the burqa believe this is something every woman should wear. We believe it is quite wrong to use the concept of human rights in such a hypocritical manner. Either a person accepts it’s a woman’s right to wear whatever she wants, be that a burqa or shorts and a tank top, or they do not. If they don’t, then they surely have no right to invoke the principles of universal human rights to support their own agendas, as such a stance is in itself blatantly hypocritical!

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